Story By: LEE SPENCER / NASCAR – SPARTA, KY – Martin Truex Jr., made it a clean sweep at Kentucky Speedway this weekend.
After starting from the pole, Truex won all three stages and successfully defended his victory from last year’s Quaker State 400.
Truex led 174 laps en route to his fourth win of the season and his 19th career victory in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.
“What a hell of a night this was,” Truex said. “We try to do this every single week but that just shows you how hard it is. We made it look easy last year, but it certainly wasn’t. Hats off to my guys for sticking with me all year. We’ve really been working hard on these race cars trying to figure them out.”
The No. 78 Furniture Row Racing team certainly figured it out on Saturday night. Truex held a 1.901-second advantage over Ryan Blaney at the finish line. Brad Keselowski finished third followed by Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Erik Jones, Aric Almirola, Kyle Larson and Joey Logano.
“It’s a positive, that’s for sure,” Blaney said of his fourth top-five finish and best result of the season. “I hate it. I thought we were in a good spot there restarting fourth and Martin struggled a little bit the first couple laps and I thought I could get by him, but just couldn’t quite get a run on him. His car came in and mine kind of faded a little bit and he won the race. That stunk. I thought we had a shot at it tonight, but I’m really proud of the gains we made all race though, to be honest with you. I didn’t think we were a second-place car at the beginning of the race, and we got a lot better throughout the night so (crew chief) Jeremy Bullins and everybody did a great job.”
Entering the weekend, Truex was adamant about the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing team picking up additional Playoff points. He did just that by winning the first two stages of the race in dominant fashion. Truex led 51 of the first 80 laps and won the first caution-free segment by .963-seconds over Harvick. The third member of the “Big Three,” Kyle Busch, finished third.
Logano, who pitted on Lap 62, skipped pit road when the lead-lap cars came in for service on Lap 84 to gain the lead. However, it was short-lived as Kurt Busch, who opted for a two-tire stop between stages, muscled past him on the restart. But Truex was back at the point 10 laps later and extended his lead to 1.3-seconds over Kyle Busch for his second stage win of the evening and fifth of the season.
Stage 2 was a bit more eventful, when Alex Bowman, who also took two tires between stages, popped a right front tire and slammed into the Turn 3 wall. The team was forced to take the No. 88 Chevrolet to the garage after 108 laps. The accident stopped a streak of three-consecutive top-10 finishes and ended a DNF-free season.
“We were the last guy that didn’t have any DNF’s – we made it one week farther than everybody else,” Bowman said. “But it’s a bummer. We popped a right front (tire) there. Don’t know if a brake rotor caused that or if we just had a tire go down. It’s unfortunate, but we will move on from it and go to the next one.”
Keselowski, who came from two laps down following a pit road speeding penalty in the first stage, battled from 33rd to 15th in Stage 2. A two-tire stop vaulted the No. 2 Team Penske Ford to first to start the final stage on Lap 164.
But as was the case with all of Truex’s other contenders, Keselowski fell to the No. 78 Toyota on Lap 201.
“Obviously, we wanted to win here at Kentucky,” Keselowski said. “We had a solid run up front, led a bunch of laps there at one point. We really didn’t have anything there for the 78, but we led laps and kept them honest.”
Seven laps later, JJ Yeley hit the wall in Turn 4 to trigger the fourth and final caution. The No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing team called for a two-tire stop and Kurt Busch returned to the lead. But 14 laps later, Truex returned to the lead and held on for his second career Cup win at Kentucky.
Kyle Busch retains a 59-point lead over Kevin Harvick in the Cup standings. Truex, who remained third in the standings, trails Harvick by eight points.
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Race – Quaker State 400
Kentucky Speedway
Sparta, Kentucky
Saturday, July 14, 2018
1. (1) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 267.
2. (7) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 267.
3. (4) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 267.
4. (5) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 267.
5. (3) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 267.
6. (9) Kurt Busch, Ford, 267.
7. (2) Erik Jones, Toyota, 267.
8. (12) Aric Almirola, Ford, 267.
9. (18) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 267.
10. (19) Joey Logano, Ford, 267.
11. (6) Paul Menard, Ford, 267.
12. (8) Clint Bowyer, Ford, 267.
13. (16) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 267.
14. (27) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 267.
15. (11) Daniel Suarez, Toyota, 267.
16. (36) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 267.
17. (22) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 267.
18. (24) David Ragan, Ford, 267.
19. (17) Matt Kenseth, Ford, 267.
20. (21) William Byron #, Chevrolet, 267.
21. (10) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 267.
22. (13) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 266.
23. (20) Chris Buescher, Chevrolet, 266.
24. (23) Michael McDowell, Ford, 266.
25. (29) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 266.
26. (14) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 266.
27. (25) Bubba Wallace #, Chevrolet, 264.
28. (30) Ross Chastain(i), Chevrolet, 263.
29. (28) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 263.
30. (26) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 262.
31. (31) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 260.
32. (34) BJ McLeod(i), Chevrolet, 256.
33. (33) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, 256.
34. (39) * Timmy Hill(i), Toyota, 254.
35. (38) * Jesse Little(i), Chevrolet, 253.
36. (35) * Garrett Smithley(i), Chevrolet, 251.
37. (37) Matt DiBenedetto, Ford, Vibration, 200.
38. (32) JJ Yeley(i), Toyota, Engine, 199.
39. (15) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, Accident, 108.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 150.454 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 39 Mins, 43 Secs. Margin of Victory: 1.901 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 4 for 22 laps.
Lead Changes: 14 among 7 drivers.
Lap Leaders: M. Truex Jr. 1-37; B. Keselowski 38; R. Blaney 39; Kurt Busch 40-60; J. Logano 61-62; A. Bowman 63; J. Johnson 64-66; M. Truex Jr. 67-84; J. Logano 85-87; Kurt Busch 88-97; M. Truex Jr. 98-163; B. Keselowski 164-200; M. Truex Jr. 201-209; Kurt Busch 210-223; M. Truex Jr. 224-267.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): M. Truex Jr. 5 times for 174 laps; Kurt Busch 3 times for 45 laps; B. Keselowski 2 times for 38 laps; J. Logano 2 times for 5 laps; J. Johnson 1 time for 3 laps; A. Bowman 1 time for 1 lap; R. Blaney 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 78,4,18,12,21,14,19,42,10,9
Stage #2 Top Ten: 78,18,12,4,42,14,41,22,20,21
